According to a report from Nikkei Asia Review, this prize reduction will take place from October 2017 but biomass power plants approved before that date will enjoy the guaranteee purchase prize of 24 Yen for 20 years. This has led to an increase in construction of biomass power plants. Among others, Sumitomo plans to increase the import of wood and biomass pellets from Canada and Vietnam to 1 million tons by 2019 (presently 200,000 tons), and Itochu plans to increase the import of palm kernel shells and other biomass fuels from Southeast Asia by a factor of five to 1.2 million tonnes by 2019. At present, most of Japan’s biomass power plants burn raw materials from construction waste. However, many large and very large biomass power plants have been or are about to be constructed. Once put into operation, the domestic construction waste will become scarce, Thus, import of biomass is bound to dominate bio-energy raw materials.
China Bio news release, February 28, 2017